John Caldigate eBook

The tidings were great. The very thing which
his father had suggested, and which he had declared
to be impossible, was being done. The old banker
himself would not, he thought, have dared to propose
and carry out such a project. The whole Bolton
family had conspired together to keep his wife from
him, and had allured her away by the false promise
of a friendly visit! He knew, too, that the law
was on his side; but he knew also that he might find
it very difficult to make use of the law. If
the world of Cambridge chose to think that Hester was
not his wife, the world of Cambridge would probably
support the Boltons by their opinion. But if
she, if his Hester, were true to him, and she certainly
would be true to him—­and if she were as
courageous as he believed her to be,—­then,
as he thought, no house in Chesterton would be able
to hold her.

He stood for a moment turning in his mind what he
had better do. Then he gave his orders to the
man in a clear natural voice. ’Take the
horses out, Richard, and feed them. You had better
get your dinner here, so that I may be sure to find
you here the moment I want you.

‘I won’t stir a step from the place,’
said the man.

Chapter XXXV

In Prison

What should he do? John Caldigate, as he walked
out of the inn-yard, had to decide for himself what
he would do at once. His first impulse was to
go to the mayor and ask for assistance. He had
a right to the custody of his wife. Her father
had no right to make her a prisoner. She was
entitled to go whither she pleased, so long as she
had his sanction and should she be separated from
him by the action of the law, she would be entitled
to go whither she pleased without sanction from any
one. Whether married or unmarried she was not
subject to her father. The husband was sure that
he was entitled to the assistance of the police, but
he doubted much whether he would be able to get it,
and he was most averse to ask for it.

And yet what other step could he take? With no
purpose as yet quite fixed, he went to the bank, thinking
that he might best commence his work by expostulating
with his wife’s father. It was Mr. Bolton’s
habit to walk every morning into the town, unless
he was deterred by heat or wet or ill health; and
till lately it had been his habit also to walk back,
his house being a mile and a half distant from the
bank; but latterly the double walk had become too
much for him, and, when the time for his return came,
he would send out for a cab to take him home.
His hours were very various. He would generally
lunch at the bank, in his own little dingy room; but
if things went badly with him, so as to disturb his
mind, he would go back early in the day, and generally
pass the afternoon asleep. On this occasion he
was very much troubled, so that when Caldigate reached
the bank, which he did before one, Mr. Bolton was
already getting into his cab. ’Could I speak
a few words to you, sir?’ said Caldigate in
the street.